Using social media can be a powerful SEO tool. But it takes a decent amount of dedication and finesse in order to make your efforts successful. Below you will find 10 ways to use social media to improve your dental Internet marketing.

1) Be an active participant.

2) Only use social media if you are ready to commit to it.

3) Understand your targeted channel/audience.

4) Complete your profile.

5) Use your personality, and your business personality.

6) Don’t constantly market your business.

7) Share information, knowledge, and tips.

8) Show gratitude for referrals and links.

9) Be transparent.

10) Make it easy for other users to bookmark or subscribe to your content.

There is no doubt that SEO evolves quickly. Often, by the time a business perfects its link-building, keywords, and community practices, an element is changed by Google and searching for certain terms and ranking for it is a different challenge.

Currently Google is changing their algorithm so every person who searches a term receives different information based on location and search history.

This has big implications for SEO. Instead of link-building and focusing on keyword research, businesses will have to put more energy into drafting compelling copy that is relevant for people in various markets.

The end goal for Google is to give searches a human element. This is good for the user and ultimately, good for businesses. It will, for the time being, help to flush out some of the black hat marketing tactics that are affecting searches and flooding the Web with spam. It is the latest wave in the ever evolving field of dental internet marketing.

It does not matter which type of business you are in. Search engine optimization is a crucial element to success. Now more than ever, businesses recognize that in order to promote their services and goods, an effective SEO campaign is needed. To bolster that thinking, take a look at this article from Web Newswire, which illustrates how universities and colleges across the globe are using SEO as a means to improve their exposure.

From the article:

The education sector today across the world is booming with potential. Not only are institutions focused on providing quality education, but are now concentrating on becoming commercially viable as well. Millions of dollars are pumped into marketing and branding exercises to make sure they stay one step ahead of competition. Whether it is college brochures or participating in education fairs across the world, schools and colleges are going all the way to woo students.

However, the Internet today is the single-most important place where students search for colleges. When evaluating their options, it is not uncommon to find them searching for keywords like ‘top B-schools’, ‘top engineering colleges’ etc. Therefore it is imperative for educational institutions to include SEO (search engine optimization) as a strategic marketing tool. (In India alone there are 900,000 searches for ‘top engineering colleges’!)

At the end of the day, in order for dentists to succeed online — from universities to private practice — they need to harness the power of SEO.

SEO is not a science. It is evolving and takes on new shapes regularly. Sometimes, if you aren’t paying attention, changes to a search engine’s algorithm can drastically alter how terms are searched and found on the Web.

This is happening now. Google announced that it plans to use snippets in its page descriptions. This has huge implications for dental internet marketing. Now, when you search a term, the pages reveal short descriptions of the content. But by using these new snippets, content can be manipulated and enhanced.

From CMS Wire:

We’ll offer a quick example here. Say that a savvy online publication wants to make sure that when a name appears in their articles, people and search engines can easily understand the context of what they’re seeing.

In particular, let’s take the fairly common name of Jane Smith. In order to make sure that you understand that they’re talking about Jane “J.J.” Smith, popular author, the site editors can use either microformats or RDFa to annotate each mention.

Say that they originally had:

<a href="http://www.example.com/">Jane Smith</A>

With microformats, you specify that you’re defining a person with contact information with the term “vcard.” You use the div and span tags to logically group the information, with div used for multiple pieces of information and span used for single pieces of information.

Using Google’s “Marking Up Structured Data” documentation, they might change this link to:

<div class="vcard">
   <span class="fn">Jane Smith</span>
   <span class="nickname">J.J.</span>
   <span class="url">http://example.com/</span>
   <span class="role">Author</span>
<a href="http://www.example.com/">Jane Smith</A>
</div>

Now they’ve added the context of Jane’s full name, her nickname, her web site, and that she’s an author. To show this same information in RDFa, they might have:

<div xmlns:v="http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#" typeof="v:Person">
   <span property="v:name">Jane Smith</span>
   <span property="v:nickname">J.J.</span>
   <span property="v:url">http://www.example.com/</span>
   <span property="v:role">Author</span>
<a href="http://www.example.com/">Jane Smith</a>
</div>

Dentists are using Twittter for SEO purposes. But now, when a twitter search is conducted, low grade and repetitive links will be flushed out be new algorithm. This means that quality content will have to be expressed in all of your Tweets, if you want to work well. And it’ll all have to be in 140 characters or less. Big news for dental internet marketing.

From Brafton:

Twitter will be adjusting its search function in the near future which will crawl for not only the text found in various tweets, but the links in those messages as well.

Although Twitter has not expressly stated how the new function will work, Santosh Jayaram, vice president of operations at Twitter told the news provider that the new search will factor in “reputation” when delivering search results.

As CNET’s Rafe Needleman points out, this should cut down on the number of “re-tweets and low-value content” that currently shows up in a Twitter search.

For companies looking to use Twitter to gain visibility online, this will mean that original content will be just as important on Twitter as it is on their own website.

Retailers in cities large and small have realized that search engine optimization is essential to increasing sales. Even if retailers are enjoying strong in-store sales (a rarity in a recession), SEO works to develop an online presence, which brings in supplemental income and can even grow into a viable revenue source.

This, of course, works just as well for Dental Internet Marketing.

Brafton released an article today chronicling the rise of SEO in retail.

R.A.G. New York, a New York City-based retailer was doing well with in-store sales, but saw little movement on its website sales – until it began using search engine optimization (SEO).

Jay Greenstein, president of the clothing company, told the New York Daily News that after hiring Blue Fountain Media to help the company with search engine optimization (SEO) its website went from three sales per day to now averaging $8,000 each month.

Google is encouraging users to create profiles on a new network system that allows you to better control the information that turns up when your name is searched. On these profiles, you can add links to your work, background, projects, etc. It’s a great way for other people to learn what you’re up to, and to keep abreast of all your varying online efforts.

If this sounds familiar it’s because this is exactly what Facebook does. The difference now is that people have no real control over what turns up in search engines. If someone writes nasty things about your work, well, it may just pop up. And if there is a mistruth about you, chances are that will show up too. So the big thing is putting your best face forward. Create a Google profile account and show the world what you’re really about.

This of course has serious implications for Facebook, Dental Internet Marketing, and Google. Facebook has new, stiff competition. Businesses can use the Google Profile as an additional SEO tool. And Google learns even more about its users.

Just one thing: Please don’t say it’s a surprise. A stealth move, sure. A gamble for users, you got it. But a surprise, no way.

In a world where everything is revealed, when an SEO novice can spend a couple of hours reading case studies and researching tutorials, what separates the novice from the professional?

Like traditional marketing, the answer is found in your customer base; understand what they are looking for, anticipate how they look for it, and you will have a clear idea of how to provide it. This is especially important in dental Internet marketing.

SEO uses keywords to do this. Understand how terms are searched and you will understand how to tap into your customer base. Of course you can use keyword search tools, but the best way is to listen, or read. Recognizing key words, terms and search queries is the fastest and most effective way to SEO success. By doing this, the novice and professional are distinguished.

Despite growing concerns about the future of business as we know it, dentists using internet marketing are finding that SEO is an essential tool and continue to invest in strategic campaigns.

For years, SEO was considered an intangible — an Internet phenomenon that may or may not increase a business’s revenue. But with sales stagnant and exposure a key measure of anticipated success, more and more companies are spending their money on search engine optimization.

Recent news from Econsultancy:

The UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2009 found that 55% of the 800 responding companies plan to increase SEO budgets this year, and 45% plan to increase spending on paid search, as they try to increase ROI in today’s tough economic climate.

“This research provides more proof that companies are turning to digital channels such as paid search and search engine optimization where there is a demonstrable return on investment,” said Linus Gregoriadis, research director for Econsultancy.

“Crucially, companies are also getting better at measuring their returns from this channel which, in turn, is leading to more investment.”

The study also highlighted that around half (48%) of the companies surveyed reported better results on organic optimization campaigns during 2008, with just 6% reporting a decrease in effectiveness.

Meanwhile, 43% claimed to have had more success and better ROI from paid search campaigns and just 15% reported declines in ROI.

Another recent study, this time from the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), found that some 70% of European advertisers have increased the amount allocated to online advertising for the coming year, cannibalizing traditional media budgets.

It’s been in the works for some time now, but it looks like Google is finally set to change their search engine algorithm. We first discussed last week how Google affects search engine optimization. The change will prevent malicious SEO tactics and level the playing field so that only appropriate information and links are displayed when a search query is performed.

From Brafton:

It appears that Google is set to make a change to its algorithms after some recent black hat search engine optimization (SEO) attacks have resulted in the manipulation of search rankings.

In recent weeks, cybercriminals have used black hat search engine optimization (SEO) techniques targeting people searching for major automobile companies including one with more than 1 million malicious links targeting Ford Motor Company, according to PandaLabs.

But Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews says these recent attacks have forced Google’s hand into making changes to its algorithm which will attempt to put an end to these malicious techniques.

Miller says a Google representative who spoke to WebProNews on condition of anonymity said the new change will make sure that these spam attacks don’t happen “nearly as often.”

“Obviously if Google fails to do something about this manipulation, users will lose trust and the good ole days of Google would be over fast,” writes Miller.

It’s unclear just what kind of change the search engine giant will make, but any change could possibly affect the search engine optimization (SEO) of many companies around the world.